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Examinations
The exam period is always going to be stressful but there are ways of making it easier. This page will provide advice and information about your examinations, including:
- Exam timetables
- Information on the exam format
- Information on marking
- Advice on revision
- Advice on answering exam questions
- Advice on exam stress
Exam timetables
You will be notified via email when the examination timetable has been published. The draft timetable is usually published in March and the final timetable at Easter. Examination timetables are made available to you via the Student Info webpage.
You must check that you are registered for the correct examination papers. If there are any errors you must contact the School Office immediately.
Exam format
Knowing the format of your exams is an important part of the preparation process. If you have a clear idea of the weighting of the exam and the structure of the paper this will help to reduce anxiety. Your individual course handbooks will contain section on the format of the exam. The best way to assess the structure of paper is by looking at previous examples. Copies of all course booklets and all available past papers are available on Blackboard.
Marking
The marking scales for examinations follow the same criteria and scales as those used for essays. In an exam paper the intellectual content is expected to be equally high but the way in which you present your information or argument will differ from your essays. In an exam, there are the added factors of writing to time, without notes and, in some cases, without prior knowledge of the questions. The examiners are not looking for unattainable levels of perfection, but you are expected to perform under pressure. Therefore, to perform at the optimum level in an exam you will have to be calm and organised in your response to the questions whilst also thinking and writing quickly.
Revision
You will find that Exams will be much less daunting if you put sufficient time and effort into your revision. There are no hard and fast rules on how to revise. If you feel like you need further advice personal tutors and lecturers will be happy to help.
Answering exam questions
It will help to bear in the mind the following points about exam questions and essays:
Analyse the question
- The person setting the exam has worded the question in a particular way.
This will be designed to elicit a particular type of answer. For example, if the question reads: 'How responsive was Simone Martini to the demands of different commissions?' the examiner does not expect to see simply a list of the works created by Simone Martini throughout his career. In this case, the 'How responsive?' part of the question is crucial, and should condition your response. The question asks you to apply some analysis to your factual knowledge about the work that Simone Martini produced, and to attempt to assess the ways in which Simone may have changed his style, or his working methods, to fit in with the different requirements of his various patrons. - Do not simply regurgitate your coursework essays.
Bear in mind that the wording of the exam question is designed to elicit a particular type of answer, and the examiner does not expect to read a rehashed version of an essay, which you may have written on Simone Martini during the unit. The exam question will almost certainly be asking for something different from the earlier assignment, and a rehashed essay or seminar presentation will not be adequate. - Look hard at what the question is asking you:
If an exam question asks 'To what extent should Giotto be regarded as a renaissance artist?' then within that question is the assumption that to some extent you should be able to argue that he could be regarded as a renaissance artist. That is the obvious part. But within that question there is also the signal that to some extent you may be able to argue that Giotto should not be regarded as a renaissance artist. A full answer to the question will take both of these possibilities into account.
Use your knowledge effectively
- Do not imagine that the essay questions suggested in your unit booklet, and the seminar topics, represent everything there is to say on a given subject.
You would be well advised to use the essay questions and the seminar topics to get a general idea of the sorts of issues which are relevant for any subject. You should think about how you might answer a question which deals with similar material but requires a different argument. Your revision for exams should give you NOT ONLY a bank of factual information BUT ALSO the ability to approach that material in a variety of critical and analytical ways.
Approach the exam question in an organised fashion
- Plan your essays.
Even if you spend only two or three minutes writing a few words on your essay booklet before you start, to indicate the material you intend to use and the points you intend to make about that material, it will help to focus your mind. Planning in this way should help to avoid the problem alluded to above, where a panicked exam candidate, faced with the question mentioning Simone Martini, simply writes down everything he or she can remember about Simone Martini. - Keep to time
- Bear in mind that you will normally be required to answer more than one question during an exam
Plan your timekeeping. There is absolutely no point in writing a first class essay if you then do not have time to produce a second essay. Even if you were to produce one essay worth 70%, the absence of a second essay would mean that the mark for the paper overall would be 70% divided by two, i.e. 35%, which would be a fail mark. The examiners will equally not be impressed by serious disparity between two answers in terms of sophistication and length. Six pages of elegant argument in one answer will be likely to highlight two pages of banal generalities in the other. Writing in note form will also normally be penalised.
Exam stress
Stress related to exams is more common than you think. If you find yourself panicking the most important thing to do is talk to someone. Personal tutors or members of staff in the department have lots of experience of helping students through the exam period and will be happy to arrange to meet with you.